A/N: Chapter contains intense sequences of gore, mush, and random conversation. Forgive me for how amazingly long it's been since I've updated. I just kind of lost interest for a while, kept saying I'd do it, and didn't. But, I promised myself it'd be up before February, and low and behold!

Enjoy; and please review when you're done. That'd make all the work I put into it feel a lot more gratified. HAHA. –grovel-

Up ahead: The land of the dead, the resurrection, and the Dead Scar's dead scars.

Through the Looking Glass

Chapter 9

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Never in his life did it occur to Riku that there could be such a thing as a deafening silence. It just didn't make any sense, because 'silence' was supposed to be… well… quiet. And though he may have only made it to the summer of his freshman year before being brutally ripped away from everything he knew, something just didn't seem to connect 'quiet' and 'deafening'.

That is, until he saw the crumpled and bloody mass that used to be his best friend lying limply in the sand.

The first reaction had been to scream, followed quite promptly by an overwhelming desire to sob. Neither need was met though, and instead what followed the gently settling sand was an eerie stillness that brought sirens into Riku's ears. The teen said nothing; simply allowing his mouth to fall open while attempting to work his mind around the alarmingly shrill screams that had started working their way through his skull. Sora did not move; not a soul dared to make a sound in the tense moments that limped by.

Riku finally found his voice a few minutes later. "…Sora…?" he called, taking cautious steps towards his young friend. The white sand around the boy had been stained red; a type of gooey mud pooled at his sides where blood had been allowed to gather, and where his head lay there appeared to be a growing lake of blood.

No response came.

Finding the situation too unreal to even fathom what a proper reaction would be, Riku simply gathered his wits over the dull roar in his mind before stumbling to where the brunet was.

As he fell to his knees, he finally became aware of the presence of two others beside him. Silintia was the first to speak, and her annoyingly composed voice sent chills of resentment through Riku's body. "He is dead. He could not still be alive. I had so hoped this trauma would not befall him…"

"Shut up."

The teen angrily ripped Sora off of his side, sending him sprawling limply onto his back. Reaching forward, he pressed two idle fingers to the boy's blood-slicked throat. Milliseconds limped by; hours.

There was nothing.

Repressing the sudden and inexplicable desire to shriek, Riku instead found himself looming further over his friend and giving him three curt smacks to the cheek. "Sora! Wake up! Now is not the time!" The silverette added another tap for good measure, before using his thumb and forefinger to slit the brunet's peacefully closed eyelids.

Riku noticed two things at once. Firstly, there was no pupil dilation or contraction to the light. Secondly, and much more prominently, Sora's sky-blue eyes had at some point lost any resemblance to their former glory. What once rang like the sea, was now dead and lackluster. What sparkled in the sun, seemed to barely catch the light. Frustrated, the older male dropped back onto his haunches and stared in confusion at his friend.

"It wasn't supposed to end like this…" he found himself murmuring, and once he thought about it, he had never said something so true. Sora was not someone who could just roll over and die. Sora was supposed to bounce back from anything. He was going to take on the entire world, and win. He wasn't supposed to die face-down in a not much more than a white-caked ditch, simply because he hadn't watched where he was stepping. Not after everything. "You can't be dead," Riku whispered, barely catching the ear of the human and elf looming behind him. "You can't be dead because everyone here still needs you… Sora…" the teen leaned in close. "Please, I need you, too…"

At that precise moment, someone came crashing through the trees.

Morphinia took in the entire situation with calloused absinthe eyes; she ambled two steps before jumping down from the foliage into the scar. "Land mine?"

"Yeah," Silintia and Richard responded in unison.

Rolling her neck, the blonde sighed. "Is he dead?"

"Yeah," they both replied.

"Any potions left?"

"Nope."

A collective silence fell throughout the group. Riku was trying to reign himself in, because it had been that woman's fault that his friend was now gone. Everything in him was screaming for retribution, but he was so numb he didn't know how to go about it. "What's with you guys?" he finally hissed out, whirling his head around so quickly he almost got whip-lash. "I thought Sora was your friend! How can you sit there and talk about this like it's trivial?! Did he mean nothing to you?!"

Richard shrunk back, looking vaguely confused. Silintia only lofted a delicate brow, while Morphinia took to puckering her lips and glaring. "What's the big deal?" asked the blonde, letting a gloved hand find its way to her hip. "Dying isn't that bad. He's in once piece and everything."

The elf had the audacity to nudge her toe at a chunk of coagulating mud. "At least, I think so."

Ripping his Soul Eater from the scabbard, Riku found himself flying off of the ground and pointing it straight towards the ingrate. "How dare you!" he yelled, voice breaking from intensity. "Sora was all that I had, and he's gone, and it's all your fault! You don't even give a shit!"

Morphinia had her axes out in a flash. The blades bred sparks as they clashed together; while the two glowered menacingly their companions slowly backed away. "What is your fucking problem?" Morphinia slurred, narrowing her eyes until they became poisonous slits. "People die all the time. He's in one piece; sure I feel bad that he has to go through it but there isn't much we can do! We don't gain anything by sitting around feeling sorry about it. In fact, we shouldn't be sitting around at all considering we possibly have an army after us, but now we have to because Sora went and got himself dead. If you're going to act like a brat, aim it towards the idiot who stepped on a completely uncovered mine!"

"To go after you!" Riku screamed, finding his lungs couldn't possibly keep up with the rate his breath had sped to. He was shaking, and he wanted to badly to strike the woman in front of him. "Why don't you care that he's gone forever?! Did he mean that little?"

The silence was thick after that. Morphinia dropped her axes to her sides, before taking a step back and staring at Riku has if he'd grown an extra head. "Forever…?"

Then the most curious thing happened. Silintia, the ever stoic one, began laughing. Morphinia joined her, and soon the entire trio had grown almost hysterical in front of Riku. Confused, the teen shuffled back and slipped his Soul Eater away. "Did I miss something?" he asked after a moment, finding that try as he might to suppress it, red still filtered into his cheeks.

"Forever!" Morphinia yelled, and her two companions echoed her. The amusement in their voices was obvious, and it annoyed Riku something fierce. "Since when-" stopping to catch her breath, the blonde sobered, "has it been forever?"

Riku deadpanned. He had no idea what the elf was talking about, and found that the only reaction he could muster was to let his jaw go slightly slack for a moment before half-yelling, "What are we even talking about? Death? 'Cause where I come from that's pretty fucking permanent."

While he had been focused on Morphinia, Silintia had somehow slithered past the teen and begun tending to Sora. She lowered herself elegantly to the ground, smoothing the boy's bangs back and pursing her lips into a thin line. "The world you come from is very different from ours, then," mumbled the mage, startling Riku with her presence. The silverette turned sharply, glaring down at the woman with distaste. He winced when she pressed her pale palm against the brunet's face, and had to suppress a growl at the motherly way she thumbed away drying blood from his lips.

"What do you mean?" he asked, furrowing silver brows.

"Here," Silintia started as she continued to minister soft grazes across rapidly paling skin, "death is not something that lasts forever."

Some massive weight he hadn't been aware of before was suddenly lifted from Riku's chest. The teen tensed, and felt his stomach go tight. At a loss for words, all he managed was a breathy, "How?"

"It is not yet your time, I shall aid your journey back to the realm of the living."

A velvety voice bubbled in the back of Sora's mind, coaxing him from the shadowy grips of oblivion and into a bright level of consciousness he had never before experienced. The boy did not know how or when he had ceased his escapades in the forest, or where he was now, but he felt an unearthly calm about the heavy air that surrounded him and the luminescent sky overhead. He was somehow standing in a graveyard of sorts; one with broken gravel lining its rotten dirt paths and crumbling headstones marking freshly upturned graves. Everything was tinted white, and Sora chalked this abnormality in his vision up to the fact that he, too, seemed to be luminescent and pallid.

Examining translucent fingers with the upmost interest, the brunet eventually turned his attention to a lightly glowing winged woman who was staring down at him gently from a pedestal of pasty marble. She said nothing, and to his surprise, Sora found his own voice seemed useless as well.

The lack of verbal communication left the boy wanting for naught, though. This angel of sorts set rampant within him a tumultuous storm of tranquility and peacefulness. In the time it took him to meet her eyes he understood where he was and why he stood there, staring reverently up at the transparent woman. "I'm dead," he murmured, the sounds flowing silently from his unmoving lips. Such a sensation was foreign, and had Sora felt capable of expression, he would have smiled vigorously at it. Instead he dropped his head, trying desperately to feel anything except blank. "Is this heaven? Is everything over?"

No response from his angel. She merely examined him with glazed over eyes, and suddenly all seemed clear to Sora. Yes, he was dead, but his path did not end here. The vibrant tendrils of energy attached to the woman's back flexed forward after this revelation; her wings brushed over the keyblade master's eyes and cheeks and sent foreign sensations through his nervous system.

"What now?"

The lack of actual vocalization was beginning to vex Sora. He felt his voice reverberating through the air, but there was no sound and his lips never once moved. The boy tried hard to gain kinesthetic control, and found that with great concentration he could open his mouth. Flapping it a few times as if he were a fish, Sora felt a smile fall into its rightful place on his lips before he again turned his attention to the angel.

"I have to return to my friends… there's a lot left for me to do."

Relieved, Sora came to the realization that there was air passing through his lungs and echoing in his vocal chords, gusting out from his mouth and making actual speech. The angel regarded him with her stony eyes; tendrils from her wings whipped lightly over his ashen and translucent skin, sending spasms of numb sensation through his nerve-endings. Whispy voices began echoing through the boy's mind, speaking in a language foreign to Sora that made chills seep over the brunet's skin. After a moment the whispers ceased, and Sora found the numb feeling in his body was beginning to accumulate on his right side, as if an entirely separate entity had sprung up from the foliage next to him and was pulling him in that direction.

Conceding, the boy took a shadowy step towards the numbness before stopping and looking with unsure orbs at his angel. The slightest inclination of her head was all he needed; Sora turned back towards the pull and followed it.

The universe had a way about it. A cruel way. A way that liked to mock intending crusaders by setting in their paths many obstacles and hard-times that would surely make them stronger for it once their journey came to fulfillment. The universe, it seemed, was down-right mean.

And, that particular day, as four figures huddled over a fallen boy in white dirt, it seemed to be feeling especially nasty. This came to be, it seemed, as a small group of undead scouts, searching for escaping members of the Alliance raid, stumbled into the Dead Scar at the exact spot said four figures were huddling oh-so-conspicuously.

"Halt!" cried one of the scouts, whipping out a shabby sword in unison with the rest of his small group. They trampled out from the edge of the Scar, looking calculatingly over Silintia and Morphinia, and then at their charges. "Wha'z this? De elvsies are pris'nas?"

For a moment, no one moved. Silintia's shoulders shook slightly, before soft and vibrant peals of laughter swam along the air currents to the scouts' rotting ears.

"Hardly," the elf mage whispered, whirling around and haphazardly throwing a fireball at the head scout. He was engulfed in a moment's time; bellowing screeches filled the scar as the rest of the squad rushed forward to attack. Riku and Richard were on them in a heartbeat; sparks filled the air as metals met and engaged.

Morphinia hesitated a moment, glancing down at Sora's limp form and the lightly perspiring mage above him. Across the scar she could hear the two humans bellowing over the battle-cries of the undead. The blond unhooked her double axes and smiled a crooked smile at her friend, "Sit this one out," she said, before mindlessly bouncing across the Scar and immediately engaging one of the scouts in battle.

Riku glanced over to the blond warrior as she fell into step with him; the teen swung his Soul Eater vivaciously through the air and easily decapitated one of his attackers, before sliding to the left to avoid another. It seemed more and more of the undead were spilling from the woods. What had before been a small and manageable handful of bodies was now becoming a large mass of groaning warriors.

To Riku's left, Richard ducked one warrior, back-kicked another, before running another scout through with his borrowed sword. The chocolate-haired man swung around, slicing absently through the stumbling body behind him then again circling and decapitating the third straight through the jaw. The monster groaned for a moment before its skull slid off; before that bone and rotting brain hit the ground the white warrior was already searching for more prey. The man nabbed a fallen but squirming scout from the ground, punched it hard so that it again dropped to the earth, and then rammed his sword straight through its ribcage and into the soil below.

"Look out!" Richard cried, looking over from the fading warrior just in time to see a distracted Riku being swung at. To his right Morphinia whirled, kicking the silver-haired teen to the side with little reserved fury, and sending him sprawling to the ground. The scout which had been swinging at him hit air, doubled over, and fell into the dirt. Grinning, the elf cleanly swiped through the moaning warrior before her with one axe before kneeling and decapitating the fallen monster with the other. Riku kicked off of the ground, landing agilely on his feet and immediately planting his back against Morphinia's for protection. The two squared, and after a moment Richard joined them so that they formed a small triangle of protection.

More warriors were moving in. The three circled slowly, weapons at the ready, waiting for an attack. Riku swallowed a lump in his throat, realizing somewhere along the way the situation had turned away from their favor. "Silintia!" he heard Morphinia call; the elf sounded somewhat stressed as she bobbed her axes. "Now would be the time to help out."

A moment went by with no response, and then Silintia's shadowy voice reached their ears. "Yeah, was about to say that myself…"

Peering through the mass of warriors, the image of a struggling mage became apparent. A boney fist clenched the elf's white locks, pulling her up into a semi-standing position as she twisted and tried to avoid the shining blade held to her throat. Silintia gurgled something else, clawing at the weapon to no avail.

After a moment the woman went limp, grimacing as metal sliced against her pale throat and brought a thin sheen of burgundy blood to the surface. Morphinia hissed, raising her chin in object defiance as the warrior in front of her raised his own weapon to her throat. "What traitors ye do'n?" it gurgled out in a poor imitation of Common Speech. "Cap'n?"

The monster holding Silintia groaned, ripped her head back slightly, and ran a skeletal finger over the gash on her throat. Tasting his fingers with a decayed tongue, the captain looked to his underling and dawned a slimy smile. "These are more than just escaping raiders…" he started, clearly much more educated than the warriors who fought beneath him. "Bound them all; we'll return them to the Queen and let her have a look at them."

"De small one?"

Pausing, the captain nudged Sora's pale body with the steel toe of his boot, shoving roughly until the frail boy tumbled over onto his side. Silintia immediately began struggling again; at the same time Riku pushed away from Morphinia and they both attempted to rush the lines. The warriors reacted quickly, one punting the blond elf in the stomach and another two working together to restrain Riku. The teen screamed, letting the sound bubble out of his throat until he felt tears. "Leave him alone!" he roared, groaning as a rotten fist slammed him straight in the mouth out of nowhere.

The hilt of a sword slammed between the teen's shoulder blades, sending him to his knees in the white dirt. Bindings whipped themselves around his hands like snakes; a gag pulled solidly between his lips and ceased the slowly stemming blood that dripped from his lower lip.

The captain seemed pleased, kicking Sora's body once more between the ribs for good measure before addressing his warriors. "The small one is fresh dead, it looks. Won't be any bother to us. Hah, with a bit of inexperience he might even join our ranks."

Riku's stomach twisted. He listened as Morphinia and Richard were forcibly restrained, hot tears he would deny streaming down his cheeks. Memories from not fifteen minutes ago littered the teen's mind, when Silintia had explained the function of resurrection within their warring world.

As Riku understood it, people who passed on in this world moved over to a spirit world. Their souls were reborn at a graveyard, where an ethereal spirit would comfort them and guide them back to the realm of the living. They had to wander the land of the dead on their own, pulled by the magnetic attraction of their body. Once they found their body, they reconnected with it and returned to life fully recovered. There were stipulations, though. If the body was mangled beyond a certain point, and yet the spirit still returned to it, they would rise again as one of the Undead. Also, if they took too long to retrieve their body it would begin to rot, and reanimating it would lead the soul to a similar fate.

That doom was what the captain spoke of, and it made Riku feel sick. Grinding his teeth over the damp linen between his lips, the teen let his eyes slide shut while willing Sora to find his way home. He tried to focus on whatever light was within him, begging it to magnify his young friend's attraction to where he was.

Within him, Riku was sure he could envision a ball of light flowing and pulsating, calling to wherever his pure-hearted friend was. He imagined it growing, tendrils sweeping through the woods to bring Sora home. Moments went by; Riku held his breath.

Nothing happened.

The warriors around him had reverted to some form of guttural chatter, sounding screechy as they babbled and checked the bindings on each captive's hands. Riku dropped his head, letting silver bangs create shadows over his eyes. Fine, he thought, feeling wicked, if the light won't help me… I know what will.

Opening his soul, Riku let ever dark thought he'd ever conceived rule him. He imagined his past; the betrayals, the lies. With every malevolent intention possible, the silverette called upon the Heartless. He called them for blood. He begged them, deep inside his soul, to drench the white earth below his knees with the disemboweled bodies of every enemy that ever stood before.

He called them to do what they existed to do, and yet, they did not come. The teen reached within himself, followed the dark paths into his mind, and sought the beings. You claim to be my minions; he called within, where are you? Bathe this land!

The screeching began within his head.

"Master master.. master cannot ask this of us."

"Why?" Riku questioned over the cloth in his mouth, unaware he'd whispered out loud. Morphinia glared up at him, a drop of blood running down her cheekbone. The elf was bent over, face in the dirt, with a warrior's foot square in her back. She gnawed on her gag, continually writhing even though it only served to have her smashed further into the dirt.

"Will not be done. Ordered not to be done. Death is our friend master."

Confused, Riku sagged. They weren't going to help him. "You're useless," he spit, the words coming out muffled. One of his captors eyed him strangely, before dropping to one knee and wrenching the teen's face up. Skeletal fingers, gray flesh still clinging to them in some places, pulled Riku's gag out.

"Wuts the human says?" it asked, examining him from behind ethereal eyes.

Seeing as actions spoke louder than words, Riku gathered all the spit in his mouth, mixed with the blood from being punched, and sent it flying into the warrior's face. The undead creature leaned back in revulsion, before stuffing Riku's gag back into place and kicking him in the side so that he fell onto the ground. Cheek buried in the white earth, the teen stared hateful daggers at all of the monsters around him.

Not far away Morphinia giggled, earning her own punt to the ribs.

Distastefully, the warrior restraining Richard (who was being overly complacent) addressed the captain. "Why we keep'n them alls? Brats gon' give us a hard time; can't we kill 'em?"

The captain, who had been amusing himself going through Silintia's pockets, looked up. "Don't kill Richard or the Silencer. S'pose the other two can go if you guys really want to… they're not of any use alive."

Richard's lips fell into a hard line. He averted his gaze from Morphinia's widened eyes, instead staring heartily at the foliage above him. The blond elf, from behind her gag, had begun cursing. Occasionally a word slipped out; "Bastard" "Conniving" and "Two-faced" were some of them. The brunet man ran his tongue over his own gag, looking forlorn and stormy.

Riku just sighed, watching deftly as one of the warriors around him brandished a broadsword and held it over him. The teen was just tired. He was tired of everything. Looking up at the dangerous tip only feet above his heart, Riku somewhat gave in.

His cheeks hurt, and he was tired of being alive. Maybe he'd find Sora on the other side and they could finally be alone.

Sourly, he realized Morphinia would probably be there too.

Above him, Riku saw the monster's wrist twitch. He closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. He thought of the earthy smells and the stench of decay; he felt sick from the metallic stench of blood wafting up from his gag.

And then, as if it'd been waiting for just that moment, a blast of white-light overwhelmed the entire clearing. Colossal winds followed, knocking the warrior above Riku off of his feet along with the rest of the scouts. The teen didn't need any more of an invitation. He struggled to his feet, whipping his head so violently towards Sora that his hair slapped his cheeks from the force. Riku was not disappointed. Still gagged and bound, he watched as his young friend's body was pulled off of the ground by a strange force, lifted into the air, and bathed in ethereal light.

Sora looked different though. His skin was ashen, his hair was lackluster. As the boy slowly opened his eyes, he was revealed to have milky irises instead of sweet blue. Riku chewed his linen, watching with objective horror as the white of Sora's skin slowly spread from the roots of his hair all the way to the tips. Struggling with his binds, Riku stumbled over to the boy and looked around. Silintia and the Captain had both been knocked unconscious by the initial blast of Sora's reemergence; Morphinia couldn't seem to get her face out of the dirt, and Richard appeared to have been knocked over and covered by writhing undead bodies.

Colorless orbs fell upon Riku. The teen's lungs stopped, and slowly Sora reached a pallid palm towards his friend. Currents of magic pulsated through the air; Sora's ashen locks wavered as tendrils of white light continued to dance around him. Appendages bobbing, the boy seemed unconcerned with the world around him. With complete and utter fascination, he pressed his hand over Riku's left eye.

"Mph," the silverette cried, recoiling slightly at the boy's cold touch. He still covered Sora's hand with his own, and locked eyes with the boy.

Riku felt warm inside.

Slowly, Sora dropped to the ground. The tendrils of light slowly faded, and left the boy, still pale with white hair, smiling up at his long-time friend. "Riku!" He yelled, ignoring that the older boy was bound and gagged, "I can't believe I died! It was so cool!" The keyblade master threw his lithe arms over Riku's torso, pulling him into a death-gripped hug.

"Sowa-" Riku choked out over his gag, relieved and yet finding a growing panic in his stomach. He'd deal with Sora's appearance later. "untwi mph!"

The boy leaned back, surprised, as if he had just noticed the gag in Riku's mouth. Sora dropped his head to the side, smiled, and laced both of his small hands over Riku's cheeks. Pulling lightly, the bit of bloody cloth was finally dispelled from the silverette's mouth. "Oh, god," Riku breathed, wagging his lower jaw around and finding it ached fiercely. "Thank you. Quick," the teen whirled around and presented his bound hands, "Untie me."

Sora did as told, pale fingers working the knot over until it came loose and Riku's bounds fell to the ground. "Riku," started the boy, "What happened?"

It appeared that Sora had finally noticed the carnage all around. The boy rushed over to Morphinia, who had yet to dislodge her face from the ground, and gently pulled the elf up into a kneeling position. Nimble fingers eased out the woman's gag; the blond immediately hawked a large amount of spit into the dirt to her left and glared at Sora. "Way to take forever," she started, shambling up to her feet and presenting the boy with her bound wrists.

While Sora busied himself with freeing Morphinia, Riku tended to the fallen mage at his feet. The teen traced the still bleeding wound on the elf's neck, grimacing, before ripping a small portion of his cloak off and wrapping it around. The group had no healing potions now; they'd have to go back to conventional healing.

"DON'T HELP THAT TRAITOR!"

Riku lurched, jarring Silintia considerably as he turned and saw Morphinia physically restraining Sora from Richard. "Morphiniaaaa," Sora cried, pulling against the woman, "He's my friend…"

"Oh no he isn't." The elf pulled Sora away and set him behind her. She toed through the continually writhing masses of undead, which seemed to be having adverse reactions to Sora's rebirthing explosion, and stopped dead in front of the human. Wrenching him off of the ground, the elf pulled Richard across the clearing and deposited him sharply on the ground next to the unconscious Silintia. "Talk."

Richard blinked up at the glowering woman, working his lips over his gag pointedly. Morphinia didn't hesitate to smash her open palm across the man's face. "Why did the Orcs know you're name!?" she demanded, voice going shrill. "You're working for them, aren't you?"

"Morph…" Sora started, stepping in and grabbing her hand, "He's gagged."

The elf grinned sardonically. "I know."

Riku finished tending to Silintia's neck and joined the trio, taking his time to stop by Richard's side and pull the bit of linen out of his mouth. The man worked his jaw, chocolate eyes regarding Morphinia hatefully. Ever the pessimist, the teen left Richard's hands bound. "You can't deny they knew you by name, man," he muttered, moving away to join Sora. "And they sort of didn't intend to kill you."

Scoffing, Morphinia kicked a scuff of white dirt at the man. "I do," she emphasized, baring her teeth in a slightly animalistic nature.

Richard worked his mouth for a moment before finally rolling his eyes up to Morphinia's face. "I'm not working with the Horde. Never would I sink that low." He paused, running his tongue over a welt on his lip, "Don't know why they knew my name. I've been a prisoner there for.. god, weeks. They nabbed me as an official envoy to the PRINCE. Knowing my name is not a huge stretch of the imagination."

"Your logic is DENIED!" the elf cried, slapping him again.

"Morphinia!" Sora cried, rushing forward as if to stop the woman after she'd already hit the man. "Listen to me, I don't know what happened when I was dead, but I know Richard is a good guy!"

The blonde shrugged him off. "What could possibly make you so sure? I know he's hiding something. I can see it in his beady little eyes."

Richard looked offended at that. "My eyes are not-" he started, only to be cut off by Sora.

"The same way I knew you weren't evil, or that Silintia didn't hate me. It's in my heart. I trust what I see in him… He's good, like you and Sil and Riku."

Aforementioned silverette choked on his spit and spent a good minute coughing uncontrollably. Sora stared blankly, waiting for his friend to sober, before muttering, "Can we please attempt to be serious here?"

"Seriousness is the name of the game," Morphinia growled, "and I seriously do not trust this guy. You didn't see the way they looked at him, Sora!"

Richard scoffed. "Neither did you! If I recall, your face was still one with the ground."

"Shut up!" Morphinia made to hit the brunet again, only to be stopped cold by Silintia's groggy voice.

"You guys are like children," she coughed, pulling herself up into a sitting position. Morphinia was at the mage's side in a heartbeat, gingerly easing her to her feet. "By your logic I'm a traitor too, Morph. And, if I think about it, I am."

Morphinia pushed out her lower lip, fastening the bit of black cloth around her friend's pale neck. "It doesn't count. You're famous."

Dropping his head dramatically, Richard sighed. "I'm an official envoy of the Prince."

Silintia absently batted at Morphinia's worrying fingers, tightening the strip of Riku's coat on her own. She inclined her head to the teen, somehow aware that he had been to one to tend to her. "You can't deny it, no matter how much you want to hate him. He's wearing the official colors of the human courts. He's skilled. The fact that the Queen took him prisoner – and that wasn't some hoax, we saved him – would have been the talk of the Undead. He'd be more famous than I ever was."

Shrugging away from her magical friend, the blonde elf crossed her arms over her chest and muttered, "Your logic is denied."

"Stop being a kid."

Morphinia looked somewhat angry, but spoke no more. To express her emotions, the axe-wielder wandered over to the still-writhing undead captain and smashed her metal boot into his face. "They sure are being affected more than usual."

"I was about to ask why all the monsters were freaking out," Sora said, looking up expectantly. Riku was standing beside the boy, pulling awkwardly at his friend's new white hair in interest. The teen drew one of his own locks out and compared their color, blinking when he realized Sora's hair had probably turned to a shade much lighter than his own. Perturbed, the younger boy slid his head away from Riku's probing hands and added, "And while we're having explanation time, what's up with my hair?"

Out of everyone to answer, it was surprisingly Richard. The chocolate-eyed man, who had at some point struggled to his feet even with his bound hands, worked his shoulders back and forth and spoke over the groan of his armor. "You happened to them. Undead creatures are naturally beings of darkness, and when a pure soul is reborn, the explosion of, if you will, 'light' energy, harms them. I've never quite seen it on this scale, though. Either way, it doesn't affect natural humans because we're not evil creatures," Morphinia scoffed in the background, and Richard sent her a hard stare. "Your hair and skin and eyes, and basically everything is white because death drains you of your color. You'll return to a normal pigmentation after a while."

Pulling his lip into his mouth and chewing it, Sora asked, "Can I speed it up? I feel weird."

"Well," Richard looked between Riku and Sora, "They say human touch reminds the body it's alive."

Zoning in on the strand of hair Riku had been messing with, the teen found it had already grown slightly darker than the rest. A somewhat evil grin slithered onto his face, and before Sora could protest, Riku was weaving his hands deeply into the boy's scalp.

Sora went beet red.

The group left the Dead Scar in favor of traveling through the thick woods that surrounded it. Navigating through the misty trees was tough, but it beat another run-in with the Undead. Sora followed awkwardly behind Morphinia, skin still flushed from being palmed back to life by his over-zealous best friend. The keyblade master had indeed gained color though; his tan was almost restored to its former glory and his hair was a soft sort of milky-brown. Sora went even redder at the memory of Riku sliding his hand down his neck, and teasing the hem of his shirt. That had been about the time the younger of the two had jolted away and demanded they continue their journey. Silintia and Richard (who Silintia had forced Morphinia to unbind) decided on their little expedition into the trees; the mage led the group with Richard following closely, Morphinia behind him, and Sora and Riku holding up the rear.

The woods were breathtaking. As they traveled a sea green haze began to permeate the air; small pinpoints of light blinking in the foliage and giant roots reaching from the soft ground. Spider webs tangled amongst the treetops, giant flashes of unseen creatures haunted each member of the group's peripherals. Though it was somewhat creepy, Sora found it serene. Purple-tinted air floated along currents around the travelers; the musky smell of mossed-over trees and soil was pleasant, while the chatter of unseen birds and rustle of beasts completed a woodsy feel.

As they moved along, something cold and wiggling suddenly gripped the back of Sora's neck and held it. The boy screeched, lurching forward while grabbing at whatever it was in shock. To his surprise, his hand slid over Riku's. "Riku!" the brunet yelled, pulling his hand away and looking over his shoulder in exasperation.

"What?" the silverette replied, looking coy. "I missed a spot."

Up ahead Sora could head Morphinia laughing, and he growled at it. "Hands to yourself."

The rest of the walk was quiet, with the group navigating over massive fallen trees and through confusing underbrush, and at one point coming across a wounded spider five times bigger than Sora. The boy had gapped, screamed, and skirted away to hide behind Riku. The beast's whimpering soon brought him out again, and Sora's ever-empathetic nature took hold. He made the group wait patiently by the dying creature while rubbing hesitant circles on its side and waiting for it to pass. When it did, the brunet let the hot tears rolling down his face be thumbed away by his best friend, who made a point of popping his finger into his mouth afterwards and smiling over it. Sora continued to cry, albeit quietly, as the group continued on.

By the time the boy's face was dry again they had stopped to make camp. Fallen trees, rotting and moss-covered, surrounded the group in a semi-circle. A small pile of wood served as a fire, which Silintia had lit with a quick flick of the palm.

"All right," started the mage, taking authority. "Richard, Morphinia. One of you check around the area set traps, the other needs to find us some meat. I haven't eaten in forever, and Sora's stomach growling is hurting my ears." Said brunet gripped his middle in embarrassment; as if on cue it grumbled. "Riku, Sora; go find drinking water. I can't conjure anything tonight. Too weak."

"You want us to just go find some?" Riku asked, eyes going low in disbelief. Sora nodded by his side, somewhat ashamed of their apparent lack of survival skill.

Silintia stared for a moment. Behind her, Morphinia gave a quick giggle before disappearing into the trees with her axes cocked. Richard had also already slipped away, moving silently into the greenery without a word. The two boys were left alone with the elfin mage, who dabbed at the sweat on her brow and shifted her soiled white robes. "If you listen you should be able to hear the water running," she said, lowering herself shakily to the ground. "I would guide you, but my strength relies on magic and I am very, very low."

Concerned, Sora started towards the woman but was waved off. "I think it was to the left. Just… go in that direction. There is a long river running through these parts; if you'll just use your empty vials we'd be good."

Riku nodded, pulling a still somewhat fluttery Sora with him into the trees. It wasn't long before their makeshift camp disappeared from sight, and the two were left alone with the sounds of the forest. It was dark night now, but the trees had an ambient emerald haze keeping them lit. The boys moved through the closely knit trees, stepped over tree-trunks and large rocks. "Riku…" Sora started after a while, realizing he was still being pulled along by the older teen.

Almost immediately the silverette dropped Sora's wrist. The younger of the two stepped back unconsciously, alarmed by the shadows that had at some point set over his friend's face. In the background they could hear water running softly; small animals rustled around them, and the occasional bird called out for a mate. "Are you okay?" he asked uncertainly, biting his tongue.

"Sora…" the older of the two started, dropping his head back so that it was lit by the green air around them. Strands of silver hair slid over his shoulders, and Riku's eyes seemed to match the world around them. Sora sucked in a hard breath, and held it deep within his stomach. "This is the first time we've been alone."

The brunet gulped.

Stepping forward, Riku reached his arms out towards his friend. Sora first reaction was to shy away, but he felt bolted into place. The boy had absolutely no idea what was going on; his heart was thumping wildly in his chest, screaming for attention and supplying blood to his cheeks. Memories of Riku rubbing his hands all over him popped up again, from some place unknown. Massaging his scalp, pulling his forearms. As if the memories had come to life, Sora felt hesitant hands grip his elbows. Riku pulled the keyblade master forward, and he stumbled into the taller male's chest rather solidly.

"Riku-" a hand behind Sora's head silenced him, pushing his mouth into the coarse fabric of Riku's shirt.

A moment went by, and Sora felt a lump in his throat. "I'm sorry," Riku muttered, voice vibrating against the boy's scalp. "I just keep thinking I'm going to lose you."

Sora relaxed, realizing Riku's plight. This emotional side of his best friend was rare, but deep down the younger of the two knew that he was special to the Riku, and very important. He could imagine, if he'd witnessed Riku die, he'd have very similar reactions. Sora wound his fingers around the silverette's waist, hands splayed over the back of his coat. They stood like that for a few moments, Riku reassuring himself that Sora was real, Sora relishing the feeling of being reunited, with the haze of green and shimmering blots of air surrounding them in a somewhat magical scene.

"Okay," the teen said, stepping back from his young friend and smiling in a sort of embarrassment, "We should probably go get water now."

Nodding mutely, Sora followed behind Riku as they weaved through the woods in the direction of the soothing water flow. Popping out from behind a wall of trees, the two were assaulted with breathtaking images neither had ever imagined.

The river itself was tinted blue-green. Mossy rocks peaked out from its surface, and white water broke around them before traveling down the winding curves of the flow. The banks were fleshed with white sand, luminescent grasses peeking out from the foliage surrounding the ashy ground. The occasional cat-tail weed flourished as well, its tip a soft blue color instead of light brown. Lily-pads floated lazily near the banks; frogs could be heard groaning, but none made themselves visible.

Most strikingly, though, was that the green-tinted air throughout the rest of the forest did not flow here. Instead, from a break in the canopy, white-light, almost luminescent, cascaded down through the air and reflected off of the moving surface of the river. Bits of glowing particles, like small balls of dust, floating along the air currents; some landing in Sora's hair and some touching Riku's nose. "Wow," the younger of the two stated, standing back and taking the whole scene in with awe. Riku wiped at his nose gingerly, hesitantly setting a black boot down on the white sand. The silverette pushed an aqua colored cat-tail out of the way in interest, before dropping down to his knees at the water's edge and reaching into his pockets.

He produced a large vial, and hesitantly nudged a lily-pad out of the way with it. Sora followed Riku's example, stopping near him and setting himself in the sand. The boy briefly considered standing to avoid soiling his clothing, before remembering they were already caked in white sand and blood, as well as multiple rips, from his prolonged stay in the Dead Scar. Sora grimaced, pulling two of his own bottles out of the large pockets at his hips and dipping them into the stream. The water both boys retracted was tinted blue, and glowed slightly. "Is this stuff going to be edible?" Riku wondered aloud, holding his vial up in the air and inspecting it.

The light reflected through it cast a soft blue shadow onto the male's face, and Sora was rather taken with it for a moment. "I guess so," he answered, when it became apparent Riku had been expecting a reply. The older teen gave him an awkward look, before standing rather abruptly and moving away. He plugged the bottle and pocketed it, and Sora immediately did the same. "I mean, Silintia seemed to be familiar with the area."

"…Yeah," Riku said distantly, fingering a blade of luminescent grass that rose to his upper thigh. The silverette eventually pulled the strand from the ground, but to both of their disappointment it immediately lost its glow.

Sora made a face. "This place must be magical. Everything is so beautiful."

Absently his friend nodded, dropping the grass into the dirt and stepping on it, driven by some deep-seeded compulsion to destroy beautiful things. Sora watched, feeling ominous in his chest.

Not long after, they returned to the camp. Richard was reclining in front of the campfire, a soft orange glow lighting his rugged and uncared for features. Silintia sat across from him, nursing her neck with a disgruntled expression. The strip of Riku's coat was discarded to the side, and red inflammation, a sure sign of infection, marred the pearly skin around the faint slice on her neck. "This will need to be looked at once we reach Tranquillin," she said, and at the same moment Riku and Sora crashed rather brashly through the greenery and into the camp.

Silintia looked up, wincing at stretching her neck. "You two took a while," she observed, noticing the way Sora lit up with a calculating eye. The boy slid forward, pulling the two glowing vials of water from his pockets and depositing them at Silintia's feet. He dropped onto the ground next to her, sighing and dropping his head into his palms. The elf didn't ask questions, and Richard barely looked up when Riku sat next to him. The man was attempting to whistle with a blade of grass, and only let the teen next to him draw his attention when he produced his own glowing bottle of water and shook it about.

"That doesn't look healthy," Richard observed, reaching forward and motioning for Riku to hand it to him.

Silintia looked up from uncorking her own bottle. "It really quite is. The glow comes from minerals run off from the upper mines in Silvermoon. The ores there are laced with magic, and it's quite empowering for magic users like myself or Sora. In fact, a mill some ways down the river back towards the Undercity runs a refining operation for the waters and sells them to people. I try to keep some on me… but, they're damn expensive." The mage took a long slug from the vial, coughed, and handed the water to Sora.

Taking a hesitant sip, the boy blanched. "It's bitter," he said, setting the bottle to the side and wincing. Still, he did notice a small change in his heart rate, and his muscles began to feel revived. When he looked across the campfire, he saw Richard handing Riku's vial back to him and wiping his lips, also looking disgusted.

"We have similar potions in Stormwind, but they are sweet like berries, not vile."

Riku emptied his bottle with two gulps, and at the same moment he slammed the empty bottle onto the dirt a crash sounding from behind him. Surprised, the silverette turned to look over his shoulder, along with the rest of the group, just in time to see Morphinia's butt bobbing out from the foliage. The elf shimmied into the clearing, dragging something between the trees with a notable amount of effort. Once having cleared the greenery, she revealed the huge carcass of a headless boar; dragging it along by the hind legs and ignoring the trail of innards it left in the grass. In a show of strength, Morphinia swung the pig around and sent it skidding into the camp.

Blood sprayed over Richard's face, but the human only blinked. He scowled, dragging an ungloved hand down his face and smearing the blood down. "I'd be pissed off, but as long as I get a cut of that, I really just don't care. There are probably worse things on me."

Morphinia's cheek ticked, and before she could stop herself, she said, "Like your face?"

Silence followed that. Thick, immature silence.

And then everyone started laughing.

The group cooked the hog, the smell enticing to the point that Sora almost choked himself trying to gulp his piece all down. After they ate they slept, and when morning came the group, finally rested and fed, set off anew to a place Sora knew only as 'Tranquillin'.

Post A/N: OH MAI GOD.

I really never thought I would finish this. It was hard. It was work. It was still amusing, though. You can tell the parts where I lost focus, but, I'm sorry. This is the best I can do with this chapter. I refuse to look at it anymore.

Pleaseeeeee Review. It's not hard, man. I love reviews so hard. And I'd be thrilled if I got 50 before chapter 10.